The Marine Corps is updating its fleet of small transport airplanes and has designated a newly formed squadron at the Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse as the home for the first two of the new aircraft.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Jordan Miller / U.S. NavyThe Marine Corps is adding two new UC-12W Huron tranport planes to the Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse. They replace planes that Marine pilots have flown for more than 20 years.

The first UC-12W Huron to be pressed into service in the Marine Corps arrived Tuesday morning. The "Whiskey" model replaces the older UC-12Bs that Marine pilots have flown for more than 20 years in transporting people and cargo both stateside and in war zones.

The Marines have purchased six of the airplanes from Hawker Beechcraft Corp. for $8 million each, and two of them are going to Marine Transport Squadron Belle Chasse, which was established as a reserve unit last week, said Lt. Col. Tom Ringo, the squadron's first commanding officer. The second UC-12W is expected to arrive at the air station later this week, he said.

The new Huron is based on the Beechcraft King Air 350 turboprop, commonly used as a corporate aircraft in the civilian world but modified for the military and used to transport everything from VIPs to engine parts less expensively than using larger aircraft, said Ringo, who stressed that the airplanes are not used exclusively to fly dignitaries and high-ranking officials.

"I haul as many lance corporals, or junior enlisted, around as I do senior officers in theater," Ringo said.

Compared with the older Bravo model, the Whiskey is larger, faster, can fly higher and can carry more weight than the UC-12B models that are being replaced. Its electronics also make it easier to fly, said Lt. Col. John Munday, a Belle Chasse-based Marine pilot who, with a Navy test pilot, flew the new Huron from Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland.

"It can do everything that (UC-12B) airplane will do, but it takes five buttons in that airplane to do what one button in this one will do," Munday said.

It has protective features such as flares its pilots can eject to attempt to confuse surface-to-air missiles, "so it's better able to survive in the combat environment," Ringo said, adding that with the new aircraft the squadron will be pushing to deploy to Afghanistan next year.

The squadron was formed last week from a detachment that was already based in Belle Chasse under the administrative auspices of Marine Air Group 49, which also oversees a detachment of Marine combat helicopters. The transport squadron has not officially received a numeric designation, but air station officials expect the unit will become VMR-4.

The unit will gain an aircraft, bringing to four the number of Marine airplanes based in Belle Chasse: two UC-12Ws and two UC-35s, which are modified Cessna Citation jets. The squadron is expected to grow by about 12 positions, to about 40 personnel, Ringo said.

The squadron also will become the UC-12W "model manager," meaning Marines units getting the new airplane will train on them in Belle Chasse, Munday said.